Chuck's vs Bernie's Strut Bat.

[Ted Fisher]

I always admired Bernies Bar. Thought it was a a great solution to an 
ugly problem. But I was never comfortable with the  system. 1. What I 
didn't like was having to cut the body to make it fit (can't reverse it 
if it doesn't work the way I want it too).  2. Tying the ends to the top 
of the struts. The factory goes to great lengths to allow the struts to 
have some freedom of movement and Bernie's bar takes a lot of that away.

Chuck's bar built on what Audi (and most  the other factories were 
doing) (see the 92 S4) and copied a rather simple solution from Nissan 
for dealing with the variables in 16 year old cars. I am not an engineer 
but when offer two opinions, one following factory concepts and the other...

I got one of the first bars from Chuck and installed in on my Avant. I 
was able to spread the towers and get my alignment back into specs. Now, 
almost a year later I just had the alignment done again and it still 
falls right into the factory specs without any fuss. Since I have 
retired my Avant as a track car (saw 209,000 miles this weekend) I am 
much more interested in long tire life than shaving a few seconds. If 
you have a alignment or stress crack problem, then IMO I recommend 
Chuck's Bar.

Ted

1991 Audi 200 Avant
2001 Audi TT
1996 BMW R1100RSL

200q20v-request at audifans.com wrote:

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>Today's Topics:
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>   1. Re: Chucks' Strut Tower Bar (Bernie Benz)
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>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Message: 1
>Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 07:20:06 -0800
>From: Bernie Benz <b.benz at charter.net>
>Subject: Re: Chucks' Strut Tower Bar
>To: Matt Bolles <m.bolles at mchsi.com>
>Cc: 200q20V mailing list <200q20v at audifans.com>
>Message-ID: <C1BBC3A6.125C%b.benz at charter.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
>Matt,
>Your contribution puts down my opinion but has nothing to do with the
>subject. Off topic!
>
>  
>
>>From: "Matt Bolles" <m.bolles at mchsi.com>
>>Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 02:39:41 -0600
>>To: "Bernie Benz" <b.benz at charter.net>
>>Subject: Re: Chucks' Strut Tower Bar
>>
>>Man, you are just chock full of sour grapes!
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Bernie Benz" <b.benz at charter.net>
>>To: "Chuck Pierce" <cpcycle at earthlink.net>
>>Cc: "200q20V mailing list" <200q20v at audifans.com>
>>Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 4:33 PM
>>Subject: Re: Chucks' Strut Tower Bar
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>IMO, you guys are out of your common sense to pursue this cosmetic design,
>>>both cost and functionally ineffective. To each his own!
>>>
>>>Bernie
>>>      
>>>
>
>
>
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>End of 200q20v Digest, Vol 38, Issue 33
>***************************************
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>